Diablo Canyon

Re "Planning Nuclear Plant's Retirement," Feb. 6: While the area of Diablo Canyon and Montana de Oro State Park is a lovely stretch of coast that should largely be protected from development, the San Luis Obispo County residents who believe that pursuing an initiative to limit future housing in this area are in a state of denial about the main threat to their health and safety, the Diablo Canyon nuclear power facility. As if it's not bad enough to have two large nuclear reactors at Diablo Canyon within a few miles of the Hosgri fault, which is the largest subsidiary of the San Andreas fault, now Pacific Gas & Electric is seeking permission to use the site as a longer-term nuclear waste dump because the current irradiated fuel ponds are getting quite crowded.

A nuclear power plant in Avila Beach shut down one of its two generators after an electrical arc that apparently was sparked during a storm, a utility spokeswoman said Monday night. Unit 2 at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant went offline automatically Sunday morning as rain fell along the Central Coast, Pacific Gas & Electric spokeswoman Kristin Inman said. "The system performed as designed and automatically went offline to protect equipment," PG&E said in as statement. Inman said a preliminary investigation shows that the arc resulted from a buildup of dust that mixed with moisture on a lightning arrestor.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it is investigating allegations of unsafe equipment installations at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo, but it added that no evidence of any such problems has been been found. Commission Public Affairs Officer Greg Cook said the charges "were very similar or closely related to information which PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

The California Coastal Commission, concerned about harm to fish and marine mammals, on Wednesday scuttled Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s plan to conduct seismic surveys with underwater air cannons offshore of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The commission's 10-0 vote followed a marathon hearing in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Commission staff and environmentalists debated utility officials throughout the day over the potential damage the sonic blasts would cause near scenic Morro Bay on the Cental California coast.

Environmentalists have settled a lawsuit challenging a decision to allow a steam generator replacement project at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The Coastal Law Enforcement Action Network sued the California Coastal Commission in 2007 after the agency issued a permit allowing Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to go ahead with the project. The lawsuit alleged violations of various environmental laws. The company is moving forward with the replacement project. According the environmental group, in the settlement reached this week the gas company agreed to a variety of programs including developing an osprey and bald eagle nesting program at Montana de Oro State Park.

Strange, jellyfish-like creatures swarming a coastal nuclear power plant: It might sound like the premise of a cult horror flick, but the invasion has prompted officials at the Diablo Canyon facility in San Luis Obispo to curtail operations for at least a few days. The plant's operator, Pacific Gas & Electric, cut power generation from one of the plant's two reactors to 25% of its capacity, spokesman Tom Cuddy said Wednesday. The other reactor was shut down this week for what PG&E described as routine refueling and maintenance, a procedure that could take about a month.

Radioactive steam escaped from a leaky pipe in a reactor at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant but posed no threat to the public, a utility spokesman said Wednesday. The leak occurred in Unit 2 along a weld in a pipe that carries cooling water between the reactor and a purifying system, said Brad Thomas, spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Workers discovered the leak Tuesday during routine work in a reactor containment building, Thomas said.

The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant resumed testing at half of its capacity power after two automatic shutdowns due to malfunctions last week, a spokesman said Saturday. The Unit 1 reactor was started up again late Friday after a feed-water pump shut down the reactor that afternoon, said Dick Davin, spokesman for the plant owner, Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

More than a dozen employees of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant have been fired or disciplined for participating in alleged drug activities, a plant official announced Monday. Only one incident among the recent activities took place on the premises, plant manager Bob Thornberry said at a news conference Monday at the headquarters of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which operates the plant.

The state Public Utilities Commission voted final and unanimous approval today to a payment plan for the long-delayed Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant that will base rates on how well the plant performs, starting with a 5% increase in January. The unique 28-year plan was agreed to by Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the PUC staff and Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp. It avoids a full-scale review of the plant's $5.5-billion construction cost, which would have taken at least another year.

In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it's imperative for California to have more definitive knowledge about the seismic hazards near the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. An additional fault in the area was only recently discovered, and more seismological information is needed about existing faults. Technology has improved tremendously since the nuclear plant began operating in 1985, and license renewal for its two reactors - a process that takes years - shouldn't go forward without this information.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. was scrambling Monday to salvage plans to conduct seismic surveys using sonic blasts off the coast near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant after a state regulatory agency staff report concluded it would disturb more than 7,000 marine mammals. The California Coastal Commission staff, in a report released Friday, recommended that the commission deny PG&E's application for a coastal development permit needed to begin the project. The staff cited "significant and unavoidable impacts to marine resources," including threatened and endangered whales, porpoises and sea otters.

Re "PG&E undersea air-blast plan assailed," Sept. 29 Regarding Pacific Gas & Electric's possible seismic testing in the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant area: The assertion that marine mammals would not be harmed or killed by up to 250-decibel sound blasts into the ocean over several days is just not credible. And even if people believed that, what about the other local sea life that the mammals depend on for survival? Remember the old bumper-sticker slogan, "Diablo Canyon has a lot of faults"?

Over objections of Central Coast residents and environmental groups, Pacific Gas & Electric plans to map earthquake fault zones near its Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by blasting high-decibel air cannons under the surface of the ocean. PG&E's plan calls for towing a quarter-mile-wide array of underwater "air cannons" that emit 250-decibel blasts into the ocean every 15 seconds for 12 straight days. The sonic reflections would be picked up by underwater receivers and analyzed to provide detailed 3-D images of the geometry, relationships and ground motions of several fault zones near the Diablo facility, which generates enough energy to meet the needs of more than 3 million Northern and Central Californians.

Strange, jellyfish-like creatures swarming a coastal nuclear power plant: It might sound like the premise of a cult horror flick, but the invasion has prompted officials at the Diablo Canyon facility in San Luis Obispo to curtail operations for at least a few days. The plant's operator, Pacific Gas & Electric, cut power generation from one of the plant's two reactors to 25% of its capacity, spokesman Tom Cuddy said Wednesday. The other reactor was shut down this week for what PG&E described as routine refueling and maintenance, a procedure that could take about a month.

California's initiative process can be both a wonderfully democratic and perilously dumb way to make law. On no issue could that be more true than the proposed initiative to shut down nuclear power in the state. The initiative would shut down the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear plants until the federal government approves a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste. The issue is scientifically, environmentally and economically complex, and tangled with powerful emotions. Between the facts and those feelings, guess which will have more influence on the choice people make?

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is spending $19 million on a four-year study to determine the cost-effectiveness of operating the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant beyond 2023. The licenses for the two reactors expire in 2023 and 2025. A decision on whether to apply for relicensing of the coastal plant will be made after the feasibility study, which will begin in 2007, is completed in 2011. "We would not make a decision before then," PG&E spokeswoman Sharon Gavin said Monday.

A state ballot initiative proposed for next fall would force California's two nuclear power plants to immediately shut down, causing rolling blackouts, spikes in electricity rates and billions of dollars in economic losses each year, a nonpartisan analyst has found. The report by the Legislative Analyst's Office says the shutdown of San Onofre in northern San Diego County and Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo County would disrupt one of the state's most reliable power sources and have profound effects on government and the economy.

The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant has more than 12 years to go before the licenses for its two reactors expire. There's plenty of time for its owner, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., to conduct a new seismic safety study. That's all the more important after the Japanese earthquake showed that seismic faults can throw off bigger jolts than geologists expected. And it is imperative after the U.S. Geological Survey found a previously unknown fault along the central California coast, near the plant.